Most businesses do not stay with an IT provider because they love them. They stay because switching sounds like a nightmare: lost emails, locked out accounts, a week of nobody being able to print.
It does not have to go that way. Done in the right order, changing IT providers is mostly paperwork and planning, and your team barely notices. Here is the order, whether you are on the Gold Coast, in Brisbane or anywhere else.
Be clear on why you are leaving
Before you look at anyone new, write down what is actually going wrong. Slow replies? The same problems coming back? Nobody can explain what you are paying for? Nobody has mentioned backups or security in a year?
That list becomes your shopping list. It is what you ask every new provider about, and it stops you swapping one set of problems for another.
Do thisWrite down the three things that frustrate you most about your IT right now, before you talk to anyone.
Check your current agreement first
Dig out your current IT agreement and look for three things:
- Notice period. How much written notice do you have to give? It varies from one provider to the next, so check rather than assume.
- End date and automatic renewal. Some agreements roll over on their own if you miss a window.
- Exit fees. Is there a payout or a fee for leaving early?
Those three answers set your timeline. Do not give notice until you have them.
Know what you should get back
This is the part people forget. Over the years your provider may have set things up in their own name rather than yours. Before you leave, find out who holds:
- Microsoft 365 licences and the admin login. Your business should hold a global admin account of its own, not only your provider.
- Your domain name and DNS. If your domain is registered to your provider, your website and email depend on them.
- Backups. Where they are, who pays for them, and whether they still exist the day after you leave.
- Passwords and documentation. Firewall, wifi, servers, printers and your line of business software.
- Security tools. Antivirus, email filtering and monitoring are often licensed to the provider and removed when they go, so the new provider needs to have replacements ready.
A good outgoing provider hands all of this over without fuss. If yours is slow to, that is a reason to have the new provider chasing it, not you.
Do thisCheck you have a Microsoft 365 global admin login in your business’s name, and find out who your domain is registered to. Those two are the ones that hurt most when they turn out to be somebody else’s.
Sign the new provider before you give notice
Pick your new provider first, then give notice. That way there is never a gap where nobody is looking after you, and the new team can plan the start date around your notice period.
When you are comparing providers, ask for the price and the scope in writing: what is included, what is not, and what happens if you want to leave them one day. A provider that is vague on the last one is telling you something.
What a proper handover looks like
A good handover is boring, and that is the point. Nothing gets switched over until the new setup has been tested. Your staff keep the same computers, the same email and the same files, and the main change they notice is who they ring.
The new provider should also do the chasing. Once you have given notice, it is their job to collect logins and documentation from your old provider, not yours.
How we do it at Coast IT
If you are thinking of moving to us, this is what happens. Before you sign anything, there is a free 30 minute call about your setup, and if staying put makes more sense, we will say so. If it is worth doing, you get the price and the scope in writing. You give notice to your current provider, and from there we run the handover in five steps:
- Handover. We collect logins, licences, documentation and whatever your old provider left behind.
- Tooling on. Monitoring, patching and security agents go onto your computers and servers.
- Audit. We go through what is running, what is exposed, what is out of support and what is quietly about to fail.
- Setup and remediation. We fix what the audit turned up, from patching and backups to who has access to what, and write your setup down so it is documented rather than remembered.
- Steady state. Monitoring and patching carry on in the background, you have a number to ring, and the Technology Business Reviews start.
Our managed IT agreements start at $119 per user, per month, excluding GST. There is no lock-in contract. Either of us can end the agreement with 60 days’ written notice, and there is no payout fee for leaving. Anything already committed for you, such as Microsoft licences bought on an annual term, is still paid to the end of that term.
The full detail is on our switching IT providers page, and if you would rather plan the bigger picture first, have a look at IT strategy.
Do this today
Questions people ask
Will we have downtime when we switch IT providers? Not if it is done properly. Nothing should be cut over until the new setup has been tested, and on the day most staff will not notice anything has changed.
Do I have to deal with my old provider myself? Only to give notice, in writing. After that a good new provider runs the handover and chases anything that is missing.
How long does switching take? As a rough guide, about 45 days from the day the new provider takes over to having everything audited, fixed and documented. Your notice period comes before that, and a larger or messier setup can take longer. Your team keeps working throughout, and you should get a timeline before you sign.
We do not have an IT provider at all. Does any of this apply? The handover part does not, which makes it simpler. The rest still does: make sure you hold your own admin logins and know who your domain is registered to, then get things set up properly from day one.
Thinking about a change, or just want a second opinion on what you have now? Book a free IT strategy call, or start with the free 2 minute risk check.